


fingers brushing underwater

by boxofwonder



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (blessed exams but thats just me), F/F, Fantasy AU, hitoka forgets how to function, im writing final exams tomorrow and im stressed so HAVE THIS, kiyoko is kickass, what else could you want really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-11 00:39:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7017181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxofwonder/pseuds/boxofwonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On her twenty-first birthday, Yachi Hitoka ruined her life and doomed her kingdom with nothing but the help of one stubborn root and a merrily flowing river.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fingers brushing underwater

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing my first final exam in 9 hours and I've been screaming into the void for two weeks straight now so please have this unedited mess of a fantasy AU which is 1500% selfindulgent fluff to soothe my screaming brain.
> 
> Shoutout to the light of my life [talonyth](http://archiveofourown.org/users/talonyth) for inspiring and shaping this AU!

On her twenty-first birthday, Yachi Hitoka ruined her life and doomed her kingdom with nothing but the help of one stubborn root and a merrily flowing river. 

Which, perhaps, could be considered a talent but all she could do wading knee-deep in water was weep and snatch helplessly for any smooth stone resembling the pearl she had just lost, and imagining an growing count of dead bodies with each useless stone dropped back into the stream. 

How could she have failed so badly!

Hitoka was the chosen one. Well, the chosen one’s chosen one? It was a little complicated. Point was, her lineage had always supported the royal family - each generation, the firstborn of the Yachi family would be destined to spend their life at the side of the true chosen one, the child with fiery hair chosen by the prophecy. Destined for greatness. 

Yachi had always felt really intimidated by the task, but silently believed that it would be like the past century - the royal child bearing fiery hair and temper alike, yet no need to fulfill a prophecy. 

And so another generation would have to change the world, while Hitoka’s only task would be to keep Shouyou from picking too many fights with rookie knights. Well, one rookie knight. Sometimes Hitoka resisted the urge to laugh hysterically when the queen tried to interest Shouyou in politics and noble ladies when all her son yearned for was to spar, sword fight and come up with new challenges he could issue Tobio in their endless strive to overtake each other. 

And at the end of the day, Hitoka would cool their bruises and bring them home safe and sound, help smooth over any damage they had caused or minds they had worried, and spend her evening drawing as her two best friends passed out snoring in her room (again). 

Honestly, she wouldn’t have minded to live her mundane, peaceful life forever and pass the pearl on eventually without ever having need for it.

Now that she had lost the peaceful routine, Hitoka would have given everything just to spend another day chasing fireflies and innocent dreams. 

But the war was gritty reality, and if it was to be averted before it cost an unspeakable amount of lives, then the pearl would have to be returned to the blade it belonged to. A blade in Shouyou’s hands, meant to strike down evil and unite those who remained. 

From here on out, Hitoka would protect his sanity, tend his wounds, cure the trembling of anxiety in his hands and brave the trials the world would throw them at his side.

This was her purpose, had been written in a prophecy as old as the count of time.  

But right now, the pearl had disappeared into the river and it was Hitoka’s hands trembling with anxiety. The most important artifact of this world and she had dropped it into the river because she had tripped over a root. An ancient prophecy and she had  _ failed it.  _

Hitoka wiped her cheeks with river water wet palms, angry at the tears blurring her vision when she  _ needed  _ it to be sharp and her mind sharper, but no. All that was left for her was to be a pathetic mess of a girl in a dress too pompous for her standards, layers of fabric clinging to her legs and hindering her search all the more. 

She should have never been called to support Shouyou, nothing good had come of it. Literally anybody else could have done the same only better, without dooming the world and losing an artifact before it could turn an ordinary blade into a powerful weapon to unite kingdoms and mend the scars of the quarrels in their past. 

A sign of hope, of strength, of a better future Hitoka had robbed the world of, had robbed Shouyou of. 

“Dragon dung,” she cursed, burying her face in her hands crushed by despair. “Curses and witchcraft!” 

“Is this a bad time to introduce myself?” someone asked, a voice ringing more beautiful than any song Hitoka had ever fallen in love with. Awestruck, Hitoka raised her head to meet the eyes of a stranger, hood drawn over her head, a flash of raven black hair tumbling from it over one of her shoulders. The stranger held herself with grace Hitoka could only dream of walking with, and her smile was soft like the promise of spring. “You seem troubled.”

Hitoka stared down at the soaked dress and could only imagined what she must have looked like, cursing up a storm with red-rimmed eyes in the middle of the river while frantically picking up and dropping stones back into it. Not only was this the worst first impression she could have made, upon meeting the stranger’s bright eyes again, Hitoka also lost her grasp on words altogether. 

So all she did was bark a hysterical peal of laughter and slap her hand over her mouth, first nodding, then shaking her head wildly, not quite sure what she was trying to convey. 

The stranger’s brows furrowed and she bent down to untie her boots, for reasons unknown. Hitoka continued to let the river stream around her and stand frozen in place, adding ‘useless’ to ‘clumsy’ and ‘ruiner of worlds’. Already more images were flashing in her mind, how she would go down in history as the person who had doomed the entire world to its fate, ruined the prophecy. How could she have let her family, the royal family, a man like a  _ brother  _ to her and  _ literally the entire kingdom  _ down like this?!

The stranger had stepped out of her shoes and started rolling up her pants, still leaving Hitoka baffled, who suddenly remembered again that there was still a slim chance not to be the worst failure in known history. 

The stranger meanwhile started strapping off a bow and several axes of varying size. Those were ... quite a few weapons. 

“Are you a knight?” Hitoka squeaked. 

The stranger’s lips tipped up in a smile. “Something like that,” she replied evenly and stepped into the river, shivering at how cool it was and showing no hesitation still as she waded deeper into it. “What are you looking for? Maybe I could help.” 

Help. Her. Clumsy, world ruining Hitoka! A knight like that … a woman so beautiful and powerful. The river tugged at the cloak of the stranger, revealing a bare arm Hitoka risked a glance at, eyes widening at the curl of tattoos over toned muscle. Oh goodness gracious. She resisted the urge to cross herself and tried not to look too closely for risk she may faint. 

“A p-pearl,” she managed to say, clapping herself on the back mentally for such a feat. Her heart was racing and she felt flustered and helpless in an entirely different way now, but at least speech had returned to her skill set. “Uhm, is this really alright?”

At that, the stranger gave her a dazzling smile. “Else I wouldn’t have joined you, would I?”

“N-no,” Hitoka replied, pressing her wet hands to her cheeks for a second to cool them and will the blush away. How scandalous to rope a strange, mysterious beauty into this desperate mission of hers! But Hitoka couldn’t entirely find it in her to care let alone regret it. “I-it’s just, my friend has to head out soon and he really needs it and everyone is depending on me and -” 

The stranger took the last two steps and came to a halt before Hitoka, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “What is your name, if I may ask?”

“Hitoka,” she somehow managed to say, though Hitoka was not sure how. “Hitoka Yachi, I -” 

“Ah! Then we should indeed find this pearl, should we not?” the stranger replied, and Hitoka was struck at once by being recognised. Suddenly, she felt nervous. In the wrong hands this pearl would -

But somehow, she just couldn’t imagine the stranger doing anything to harm her, and usually Hitoka was quick to assume the deadliness of anything and anyone. Trusting her instinct and heart still beating rapidly with the hand resting on her shoulder, she found the bravery to ask: “What is your name?”

The stranger was still smiling. “Call me Kiyoko. Dear Hitoka, could you keep a little secret to yourself if I were to find your pearl and escort you back to your friend?” 

Hitoka only managed to nod, a secret making this whole incident seem even more scandalous and exhilarating. 

Kiyoko raised a finger to her lips and winked at her before she curled her hand and awoke a spark of bright magic in her palm. Really, it was not like Hitoka could have helped her gasp. Suddenly the hood made sense - suddenly a lot of other things made sense also, and then again  _ not.  _

Only elven royalty knew to work magic. 

Apparently, Kiyoko was not willing to give herself away as such, but Hitoka now  _ knew  _ and  _ curses and witchcraft  _ that was a revelation if she’d ever witnessed one. Hitoka felt almost as blindsided as she had back when Shouyou had been chosen. Almost. 

Whispering words which sounded melodic and round in a way so pleasant Hitoka could have listened forever, but only meant gibberish to her, Kiyoko sent the small magic ball on its way. It dipped under water and proceeded beneath the surface, a faint glow following the direction of the stream. “Hurry, we need to keep up with it!” 

With an indignant noise Hitoka hurried after the knight / princess /  _ whatever  _ this beautiful stranger was, the both of them splashing water as they ungracefully carded through the river and past the glowing orb which took them downstream not too far, hovering at a huge tree branch only partially sticking out through the surface. 

At once, Kiyoko and her bent down, fingers brushing underwater and causing Hitoka to jerk back the same moment Kiyoko did. “Forgive me,” Kiyoko muttered and took a step back. Hitoka reached into the water once more, a sensation much like the feeling of returning home washing over her as her fingers closed around the pearl, which had remained pleasantly warm despite the water around it - just a curious part of its nature.

So Hitoka had not yet doomed the entire world after all. How relieving. 

“Thank you so much,” she sighed, feeling about ready to cry. She would never let go of that pearl again. Which, alright, she would as soon as she’d be back to offer it to Shouyou in a big, pompous ceremony that both Shouyou and her found pretty much redundant but had to sit through for the sake of tradition. But, in theory, she would never let it drop anywhere again. 

“It was my pleasure.” Kiyoko inclined her head, then offered her hand. “Now, may I help you out of this river and to the castle? I am awaited as well, and being late on top of coming to the doorstep of royalty dripping wet with the prince’s most trusted companion might not paint me in the best light.”

Gulping, Hitoka took the hand offered, amazed at how small yet powerful Kiyoko’s hands were. Instead of relying on her magic, Kiyoko had for some reason decided to spend her time training to fight with axes and shoot bows instead. How puzzling. Hitoka wanted to ask her a million questions, even though it seemed unsuited considering their difference in status. 

“So you’re -” she began, still trying to wrap her head around it, but Kiyoko shushed her instantly. 

“I am but a knight as long as I am in your kingdom. Special treatment would only get in the way of my mission. I do not need to be pampered, I am here to help prevent a war between our people and end the reign of our mad king. That is all.” 

“Alright,” Hitoka replied, dazzled and amazed. “You are really amazing.” Oh, had she - said that out loud - yeah, yeah totally if the smirk Kiyoko was showing was anything to go by. 

“Why, I would return that compliment instantly. I trust you will accompany the prince on his quest?”

“Yes!” It was the first time Hitoka felt confident confirming her upcoming mission - that she would support Shouyou no matter what, unwavering. She would pull herself together and be strong. 

Kiyoko stepped out of the river first and pulled Hitoka after her, meeting her gaze and holding it as they stood, still dripping and their fingers laced. “Then I am looking forward to travelling together.” 

Hitoka felt almost choked up at the notion, excitement bursting inside her like shooting stars. Kiyoko’s fingers tangled with hers felt warmer even than the smooth pearl resting safely against her other palm. 

“L-let’s do our best,” was all she managed to say, because Hitoka had no words for the thrill she felt at the possibility of truly getting to know this incredible person before her. 

But Kiyoko’s smile told her those words were more than enough already.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Just so y'all know please imagine the cheesiest, happiest ending you can think of. That is canon. Everything turns out well, the heroes save the day and Yachi gets to smooch her axe wielding elven queen eventually. 
> 
> Also I don't fail to graduate.  
> (LET'S HOPE)


End file.
